Lucas, the Orion Group, a Bangladeshi company, has approached the U.S.
Export-Import Bank to
obtain
financing for the building of two coal-fired power plants in Bangladesh.
One of them would seriously damage the Sundarbans – the world’s
largest mangrove forest and home to the endangered Bengal tiger. The other
plant would be located just outside of the country’s capital, Dhaka,
polluting the air and water of millions.
Americans will not stand by and be a party to the destruction of a World Heritage site, our climate, and precious endangered species – all to boost the profits of Big Coal.
Sign the petition from CREDO and Daily Kos to the U.S. Export-Import Bank: Don’t finance Big Coal in Bangladesh.
The Sundarbans mangrove forest that would be destroyed by the Orion Khulna plant stands as one of the world’s most unique ecosystems. It serves as a refuge for the endangered Bengal tiger, the Ganges river dolphin, and provides a livelihood for over half a million Bangladeshis.
Building these plants would require the trampling of local citizens’ rights and property and the destruction of their livelihoods. And the Orion plant that would be built outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, would threaten the air and water quality of 17 million people in Dhaka’s metropolitan area. And none of this even begins to take into account how this potential deal affects the global climate.
We can’t allow a U.S. government agency to cooperate with a foreign conglomerate to work against the very values and efforts we here at home are working to uphold, while also destroying a UNESCO World Heritage site and threatening the endangered species and human lives it protects and sustains.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank needs to hear an outpouring of opposition from all of us. Sign the petition now to make sure these dirty coal plants aren’t built with any U.S. support.
Keep fighting,
Monique Teal, Daily Kos